Leaders to please in Berlin for Ukraine peace negotiation

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, will host a session in Berlin with the Russian, Ukrainian and French chairwomen on Wednesday to discuss efforts towards peace in eastern Ukraine in their first summit in a year, her office has said.

Merkel has invited the Russian president Vladimir Putin, Ukraines president Petro Poroshenko and the French chairperson Franois Hollande, to assess the implementation of the Minsk[ peace] agreements since the last session and discuss further steps, Merkel spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said.

The decision to hold the Wednesday evening session in Berlin follows a flurry of telephone diplomacy over the past week, but host Germany has downplayed chances of a breakthrough.

If there were such a meeting , no one should expect that it will resolve all the problems, Seibert said on Monday.

From the ceasefire, which isnt truly one, to the stalled political process, a lot really is not satisfactory at all, he told. But Minsk is the only thing we have, the only thing everyone can call on and that sets out a peaceful and political road for everyone.